With over 500 drums and 50 new bass sounds, the SR-18 from Alesis is an expansive and powerful drum machine in a portable package.
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Manufacturer's Description for Alesis SR18 Drum Machine
Capitalizing upon the form and function of the venerable SR-16, Alesis released the SR-18 in 2008, a powerful and intuitive drum machine that makes song creation easy. Featuring over 500 drum sounds, 50 bass sounds, and a monumental 32 MB of memory, the SR-18 has everything you need to lay down backup beats for your shows or latest recordings.
The SR-18 is an incredible drum effects machine that performs equally well on-stage or in the studio. The over 100 preset programs represent a massive range of percussion samples from Latin and jazz to hip-hop, accommodating any playing style. Alesis' Dynamic Articulation technology makes the SR-18's samples responsive to desired dynamic and color changes, just like real acoustic instruments. A fill button that can play in a variety of rhythmic patterns simplifies jamming or adds a new dimension to your one-person band act. The integrated effects engine includes Reverb, EQ and Compression for even greater tonal versatility, increasing your performance and recording options. The dedicated instrument input makes plugging-and-playing an effortless endeavor with the SR-18.
Not content to simply produce a comprehensive drum machine, Alesis designed the SR-18 to be as user-friendly as possible. The simple save and recall features mean that you can easily cue and launch your stored beats and back up sound effects quickly, keeping your live sets moving along nicely. The pads at the bottom allow for synthesized bass playing directly through the device, and the touch-sensitive drum pad and jogwheel allow you to adjust tempos. The two footswitch inputs make this even easier--one of the inputs can be used for a button that taps to set the tempo, and the other can be used to initiate the drums or other percussive effects ensuring spot-on synchronization. The back-lit LCD screen in conjunction with the jogwheel make sifting through menus a breeze.
Features
-Large, 32MB sound set with percussion bank and bass synth -Over 500 percussion and 50 bass sounds -Built-in Effects - Reverb, EQ, and Compression -Battery power for max portability -Pattern Play Mode enables different patterns to be triggered from the pads directly -Mute/Solo Function for parts- drums, bass and percussion and per pad within a bank -32-voice polyphony -100 Preset Patterns and 100 User Programmable Patterns -Tempo / Value dial -MIDI In and Out -Drum Roand footswitch control -TRS 1/4" Aux Output -Headphone output -Instrument Input
Alesis has been one of the leading voices in drum machine technology for many, many years. The SR-18--with its impressive selection of sounds, presets, rich and customizable tonal qualities--represents a new chapter in an already storied saga of success.
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AC and Battery Power capability (6 AA's - not included with product) and included AC Adapter
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"As long as zZounds maintains their Play as you Pay option, I will shop there exclusively." - customer on February 7th , 2012
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"It's an SR-16 on roids"
Sound:
The sounds are excellent quality. The sound from the out's is powerful and clear, some cheesy drums included but its just a matter of taste i guess. The bass feature is a bonus so im not gonna be too judgemental on that one but it gives you 3 ocataves(i think)of basses, some are pretty cool, some are blah.
Feature:
great sequencing, menus are easy once you read the book, comes with an ac adapter.. some people might take issue with the outs, all are 1/4 inchers and midi, but there's headphones, aux, left out right out etc, so there are a bunch.
Ease of Use:
even with the limited LCD the machine is easy to use. The documentation is very clearly written. The limited display and interface only becomes an issue when step editing certain events in high step patterns.. no big deal, takes a little patience. Buttons/wheel feel great.
Quality:
the build of this thing is easily described: Solid. Solid plastic, sturdy pads, wheel feels durable, no flex. This thing doesnt feel at all hollow, it feels like thick plastic with a solid metal core.
Value:
I think this is well worth the price most are selling it for, if it was msrp.. well still worth it, but harder to pull the trigger on it.
Manufacturer Support:
Dont know anything about the support.
The Wow Factor:
this thing looks, sounds and feels great.
Overall:
I cant speak for others but this machine does what i want it to do and it does it very well, it's predecessor was widely sold/used from 1989 till today, this one might just do the same, alesis-sr20 in 2037?
Style of Music: Rock/Metal/Techno/Industrial/Ambient/Electronic/Alternative/Blues
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"Good sounds and real-time recording; poor song assembly software (no real-time bass transposition)"
Sound:
Some drum sounds are excellent, and sound similar to real drums, if that is what you wish to have. I have good high frequency hearing, and the 44.1K sample rate is not good enough to reproduce cymbal sounds accurately. It is CD quality, if that is good enough for you. Some of the drum sounds are better that the Zoom RT-223, but the Zoom has more control over the effects. The SR18 only offers a large range of preset effects; you cannot modify them in any way.
The SR18 probably has better drum presets, and they all have fills and A/B parts, but the SR18 song editing has a major flaw if you wish to use the bass track. I explain this in the features section.
Feature:
The SR18 software has major flaws.
When you assembly a Song from Patterns, you create a series of "steps" with each step playing one Pattern. You are not given an opportunity to specify either the number of bars for the step (it must be the length of the Pattern) or the bass root, or transposition, of the step.
This means your Patterns must already be transposed to exactly the right key, and they have to be exactly the right length. I wished to create a blues song quickly. Some blues patterns are great, but I could not assemble them into a song without first copying them into an empty user pattern and modifying the bass notes. In some cases I needed to change the length of the pattern, to shorten it. This is not explained in the manual but it is possible by setting the "recording settings" pattern length, and saving the pattern again. Once you shorten the pattern, you lose your fills... they are at the end, because a fill pattern is the same length as an A/B pattern.
The Zoom RT-223 does not have these problems. With the Zoom, you can specify the number of bars played for each step in a Song, as well as the bass key.
Ease of Use:
It is easy to use if you mute the bass and use only the drums. It is good for live use, with the foot-switch controls.
For creating songs with bass tracks, it is hard to use, because of the problems specified in the features section. Also, step editing built-in patterns can be difficult. First you copy it to an empty user space. Then, you select a quantization and swing amount that matches the smallest time interval used in the pattern. How do you figure out the swing amount? You have to guess. Why is this important? When you go to the next "step" in the pattern, using step editing, it takes you forward in time by the quantization interval and the swing. If there is no event at that point in time, you cannot edit anything. If you skipped over an event, you cannot edit it.
Many built-in patterns do not use quantization, so the only practical way to edit them is to set the quantization to 96 parts per quarter note, and tediously step 96 times for each quarter note. This is crazy and indicates a poor software design.
The Zoom RT-223 does not suffer this problem. Step editing allows you to jump directly to the next event as it should.
Another problem with the SR-18 is you have to hit the pads with a small hammer to get the highest velocity setting. You really get only a few practical velocity variations if you use your fingers. It is as if the pads were for drumsticks.
Quality:
Excellent quality, except the jacks are plastic, not metal. It is made in Taiwan, not communist China. The only mechanical flaw is the wrong pads -- they seem to be for drumsticks, not fingers.
Value:
Excellent value for the sounds and patterns. Poor value for the software for editing songs, and for step editing patterns.
Manufacturer Support:
I did not use support.
Overall:
Not very happy with the song editor and pattern step editor. I like the sounds however.
Style of Music: Blues, various
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(86.67%) found this review helpful. Did you?
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